The Happiest and The Saddest Part of My Day
by pearlydewdrop
Summary: 'It's my favourite part of the day, driving you'...Somehow along the way he had become the Irish Republican Romeo to her Aristocratic Suffragist Juliet...'It's the saddest part of my day, leaving you.' (Set during WWI in Season 2 and is based off of a quote from the British romantic comedy, 'Love Actually')...Sybil Crawley/Tom Branson


**The Happiest and Saddest Part of My Day.**

* * *

_"It's my favourite part of the day, driving you",_ Tom mused to himself with small smile as he watched the youngest daughter of his employer attentively in the Renault's rear view mirror.

He longed to tell her so, but she looked far too happy to be interrupted...so he didn't, and choose to enjoy her smiles instead.

Lit up by an enthusiastic grin, Sybil told him all about her busy day at the hospital, about working and learning under the guidance of Mrs Crawley and Nurse Roberts and about all of the life saving procedures that she had been permitted watch Dr Clarkson perform.

With the influx of injured soldiers brought into Downton Hospital in the last few days, Sybil had been more exhausted than Tom had ever seen her.

Long gone were the fancy evening gowns, replaced with a bloodstained nurse's uniform, dark circles beneath her eyes and mussed curls that had been hidden all day underneath the same nurse's cap that she had quickly discarded in the backseat.

She had never been more beautiful to him, shining with pride in the afterglow of her own hard work and accomplishments.

Absolutely radiant.

That day in York, Tom Branson had been sure that there was no possible way that he could love Sybil Crawley any more than he already did, but everyday since she had proven him wrong.

His love for her grew with every hour that passed in her presence, it was something that he knew, deep down inside, would never change about him, about her, about them.

If only she gave him the chance to truly show her.

As they rolled past the gates of Downton Abbey, the conversation turned from her nursing to his day in the garage, the letters he had received from his family at home in Ireland and the most recent literature he and Sybil had exchanged for the other's enjoyment.

Sybil, who had been aghast at the fact he had never read it before, had been eager to loan Tom her copy of Jane Austen's '_Persuasion_' and since they were diverting from their typical political writings, he had given her, in return, his English translation of _'An Táin Bó Cúailnge'. _

Tom smiled softly to himself as he watched her praise the bravery and cunning of Queen Meadhbh in the old Irish epic. Ever the feminist, he had known she would enjoy it.

He thought of the book she had shared with him, a love story that had seemed hopeless until there was nothing but hope for the future in the end.

A single quote from its final chapter came to mind.

''_You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.'_'...that was exactly what she did to him, and it made him wonder if she knew it, if she knew exactly the effect she had upon him.

Sybil. His Sybil.

* * *

Meanwhile in the backseat, Sybil Crawley willed her cheeks not to flush under Tom's watchful gaze on the fleeting but all consuming occasions when their eyes met in the rear view mirror.

She tried not to concentrate on his broad shoulders, one of the only parts of him she could see clearly in the pitch black winter evening, and how it would feel to wrap her arms tightly around him and never have to let go.

She tried not to look at his gloved hands on the steering wheel and remember how those same hands had firmly but gently held her by the waist that day in the garage.

(A day that she had unabashedly revisited in her dreams on more than a single occasion, imagining the wonderful things that could have happened if only she had been a little more sure of herself...if she had reached out and touched him in return, just as she had been aching to do for so long.)

However, despite her own personal feelings, the obstacles that held her back were still very much apparent.

Sybil couldn't bare the possibility of loosing her friends and family at Downton equally as much as couldn't bare the possibility of loosing Tom.

Tom Branson who had been her best friend, her confidant and her sanity in a house where she was steadily feeling more and more like she no longer belonged.

Perhaps with him was where she truly belonged now, with Tom. Her Tom.

When the Renault came smoothly to halt in front of the abbey, Sybil felt the customary lurch of regretfulness in the pit of her stomach. (It was a feeling that she had come to associate with being parted from Tom.)

'_Parting is such sweet sorrow'_, Sybil thought wryly to herself, identifying with the trials and tribulations of the Shakespearean heroine. '_that I should say goodnight until it be morrow.'_

After all, were they anything if not star-crossed lovers, separated by societies conventions and familial disapproval.

He was the Irish Republican Romeo to her Aristocratic Suffragist Juliet.

She climbed out of the car and approached the door at the driver's side, thanking Tom with a smile that was filled with far too much sweetness and repressed longing to be shared simply between a Lady of the house and her father's chauffeur.

As he bid her goodnight, the confession was just on the very tip of her tongue-a confession that she knew would have made him give her that adorable smile (the same one that always made her heart feel as though it would leap right out of her chest).

_'It's the saddest part of my day, leaving you.' _

...but she couldn't bring herself to tell him, not just yet.

* * *

**Hiya everyone! I really hope you enjoyed this. A massive massive thank you to everyone who have read, reviewed and favourited my other Tom and Sybil oneshots and my new multi-chapter victorian era story too. It's called 'I'll be out there somewhere', in case you want to check it out. **

**I got the idea for this fic here from a quote between Colin Firth's character and Lucia Moniz's character in Love Actually. I thought it was suitable for ****Tom and Sybil's relationship but I'll leave that up to you guys to decide :) **

**The other quotes scattered in here are from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' and Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'. **

**Anyways, let me know what you thought and I hope you all have a really lovely day! **

**Thank you, **

**Pearlydewdrop xx **


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